Someone's Gotta Do The Dirty Work
by llBoonell
Summary: A girl named Lara falls asleep in school and wakes up in the world of, not Minecraft, but Tekkit! There is civilization, nations, science, and magic, and Lara will soon be caught up in it all. And through it all, she will have the support of her faithful Squad!
1. Chapter 1: Beachfront Awakening

Chapter 1: Beachfront Awakening

Lara came to on a beach. Much like so many before her, only she didn't realize. She got up, looked around, and saw very little. She moved further inland, past the dunes, and entered a sparse forest of oak trees, interspersed with the occasional birch. She spotted animals between the trees, animals she thought were domesticated. Pigs, cows, sheep and chickens, all running wild and free.

She continued through the forest, until she came to a clearing. This clearing had a small pond in the center, a pool of deepest blue. At the bottom, she could make out a bed of gravel, with the occasional patch of grey clay. She sat for a while, pondering what had happened.

Only she could not remember.

Then it hit her. She had been sitting in her classroom, when she had fallen asleep in a video about some man named Hitler's rise to power. Was she dreaming now? If she pinched herself, would she leave this tranquil clearing? Would she return home from this curious place where farm animals ran wild in the forest?

As she pondered these thoughts, she did not realize it was getting dark until the clearing was well in shadow. She rose, feeling a sudden sense of urgency. She could not place the feeling, but she needed to do something. Now. What was it that needed doing so urgently? She felt like…

…like she needed to hide.

As the shadows grew longer, and at an alarming rate, Lara moved towards the trees, feeling exposed in the dying sunlight and growing moonlight. She attempted to climb one of the oaks, but the trunk was tall and smooth, offering little purchase for her hands and feet. Then, she heard a twig snap behind her. She ducked around the tree and twisted to get a view around the trunk, which had to be at least a meter in diameter. She peeked around the edge, and then recoiled in horror.

There was no mistaking it, the creature before her had to be a zombie. What else could resemble a monstrosity like this? It was like a man, but not. The flesh was green, the eyes a hollow black. Lara thought this was the case, until she realized the eyes weren't even there. The blind, sickly green face searched the clearing, sensing prey nearby. It was clad in shredded blue denim jeans and a tattered turquoise shirt. The rotted leather boots on its feet shed threads upon the grass as the zombie stumbled around the pond.

Lara was terrified. She began to slowly back away, but a crackling sound from underfoot stopped her. She was crushing dried leaves beneath her brand new Converse shoes. She looked up, hoping the zombie had not noticed.


	2. Chapter 2: The Walking Dead

Chapter 2: The Walking Dead

No such luck.

It appeared to happen in slow motion. Lara saw its jaw drop, its arms raise, and the creature began to stumble forward. Then came the moan. It was a horrifying, guttural sound that seemed to come from deep within the darkest depths of hell.

The zombie began to increase its speed. Lara felt an unbearable urge to run, but she found she could not. She was paralysed with fear. She somehow managed to back away a few steps, but it was in vain. The zombie caught up with her and bludgeoned her with its arms.

Lara grunted and fell to the ground. The zombie loomed over her, and started to bear down, no doubt to devour her brains. The rotting jaw, with missing teeth and a dirt-blood mixture on the gums, approached her face. The moan intensified, and Lara nearly blacked out with terror.

Then, there was a tiny glint of silver in the trees. There was a rustling, but Lara thought it must simply be the wind. The zombie hesitated for a moment, the renewed its attack.

An explosion split the night.

The zombie's chest exploded into a cloud of gore.

Lara screamed, suddenly able to move, and flung the corpse off her. She attempted to get to her feet, but never made it. She was scooped up by powerful arms, and flung across broad shoulders. The thing carrying her began to run, and Lara became dimly aware of something nudging her in the gut. It was rounded, and felt like it was made of wood. She looked down and saw the curvature of a bow.

She realised it was a man carrying her, one that did not reek of rotting flesh, but an honest to Notch human being. Lara's last thought before blacking out was:

Who the hell is Notch?


	3. Chapter 3: Out of the frying pan?

Chapter 3: Out of the frying pan…?

When Lara awoke for the second time in this strange world, it was not on coarse sand, but in a soft bed. She looked around, moving only her eyes, leaving her head still so as not to give away her consciousness to those who may be watching. From her position, she could make out wooden walls and a ceiling, with a row of stone bricks around the bottom of the wall. The floor was thick woollen carpet. Lara could see torches burning on the walls, and small glass window panes gave her a somewhat restricted view of the sunrise from the foot of her bed.

The silence was broken by a single word shouted from beyond the front door.

"_FUCK!"_

Lara nearly jumped right out of her bed to see what the issue was, sensing that it was vital to help, until she heard it. The moan. It was back. She heard shouting from beyond the front door, and she slithered out of bed and crouched beneath the window. It barely registered that she was not in the same clothes she had fallen asleep in.

She was about to peek her head above the windowsill, until the glass shattered and half of a decomposing head flew through the empty frame to land on the carpet. Lara squealed and threw herself across the floor, away from the hideous object. Even as she watched it, it began to liquefy, and melted to seep into the carpet, eventually disappearing from sight.

A few seconds later, another head poked through the window. It was a young man of similar age to her. He had a buzz cut and piercing blue eyes. He looked at where the zombie head had fallen, registered its absence, and smiled. He then turned his head and saw Lara. He started, bashing his head on the top of the empty window frame. He cursed again and fell out of the window. Lara rose and went to see if he was okay. She looked out of the window and saw seven people before her. Six boys, plus one girl.

Most of them were lean, bearing the signs of slight malnutrition, except perhaps for two very large boys in the centre of the group. They all had similar haircuts, all very short, but of slightly differing lengths between them. Except the girl, who had somewhat long hair that had been tied back into a ponytail. Two of the boys carried shovels. The girl was carrying a hatchet. Two boys were hefting pickaxes, while one was holding nothing, but wore a toolbelt with all manner of implements.

The last boy was sitting on the ground, rubbing his head. This was the one who had fallen out of the window. He had some kind of gun strapped to his belt and several knives in criss-crossed sheathes on his chest. He shook his head and looked up at her. He then spoke, a harsh sounding voice, but one that belied something tender beneath.

"Mornin' miss. The name's James, and let me tell ya, you scared the _shit_ out of me!"


	4. Chapter 4: The Squad

Chapter 4: The Squad

Though not one of the young workers believed her wild story of parallel universes, James had to ensure that they would not do her any harm. He watched her now as she sat at the table, simultaneously being educated about the world by Jeff, the Squad Craftsman, and munching on a loaf of bread. Miranda, the Lumberjack, tapped him on the shoulder with her hatchet.

"Hey James, watch what you're doin', huh?" She said with a small smile. "Last thing you want is to get your hands cut off."

James grunted and shifted his hands further apart on the log he was holding. Miranda then brought the hatchet down hard, splitting it in half. James picked up the two pieces and threw them onto the firewood pile.

"Okay, that's the last of the logs from yesterday. That ought to do us for a fortnight, at least." James said, and then motioned for Miranda to proceed back to the Workshop. James and Miranda strode through the open door, James closing it behind him, and sat down at the dining table with Jeff and Lara.

"So what's the deal, Jeff?" Miranda said, retrieving a flask of cider from her hip. She drank deeply, then passed it to James, who did likewise.

"We've managed to establish that physics is identical between our 'parallel universes'." Jeff said with a snicker. He then accepted the flask from James and drank. Lara snorted and crossed her arms.

"Jeff, please don't antagonize our guest. You're supposed to be the level-headed one." James drawled. Jeff shrugged and offered the flask to Lara. She sniffed it, coughed, and shook her head. Jeff shrugged again and handed the depleted flask back to Miranda.

"It's an unlikely story, is all I'm sayin'." Jeff said, before rising from the table and proceeding to a small workbench in the corner whereupon he placed the half formed stone head of a shovel. He began to further refine its shape as the remainder of the Squad entered the Workshop, sitting down at the table for lunch.

"Alrighty Miss Lara of Earth, let me introduce you to Squad 437." James announced. He motioned first to the girl next to him, her hatchet slung behind her back.

"This is Miranda, our Lumberjack. She's an expert with plants of all kinds, and can throw axes with the best of them."

Miranda nodded and patted the haft of her axe.

"You've already met our Craftsman, Jeff. He's the sour one, see? Over there in the corner." James said, laughing to himself as Jeff turned his head back to the group long enough to shoot a filthy look at James, before turning back to his stone shovel-head.

"The two brutes you see with the picks are Jordan and Carter." James said, motioning respectively to a large boy with scars on his face, and a somewhat thick-set young man with a small wooden pendant hanging from his neck. The scar-faced boy, Jordan, had a ring of interweaving tattoos on both of his upper arms.

"Don't get me wrong, the whole 'brute' thing is a misnomer. They're actually some of the smarter workers in the Nation, but they got a little _too_ smart, so they got assigned to our little backwater Squad." James said wistfully. He had always thought that the gentle giants were meant for greater things than this life. Carter and Jordan nodded gratefully at James for their recognition.

"…And these are the Twins, Rob and Tom." James said, motioning to the two boys with shovels. Each had the same green-gray eyes, sharp ears and angular jaw, giving each the appearance of a lynx. "These guys were orphans, and they tried to get work in the city. When their employers realised they were skimming profits to try and earn a little extra, they got sent out here to, well…dig."

"Come to think of it, that's almost all we do these days. Dig." Jeff said. Putting the shovel head aside, rising from the workbench and moving back to join the Squad and Lara at the table. James nodded at him, and then turned to Lara.

"…And then you got _me_." James said. "I'm James, the Slayer of this Squad. Coincidentally, I've also been elected Sergeant. It's my job not only to lead as Sergeant, but also to keep mobs off my Squadmates as a Slayer."

"Mobs?" Lara said quizzically, cocking her head to the side. Jeff leaned across to her.

"Short for Mobiles. Means anything that moves, usually with murderous intent." Jeff whispered into her ear.

"So, this is us. Now, would ya mind tellin' us about your good self?"


	5. Chapter 5: The Agreement

Chapter 5: The Agreement

"Well," began Lara, "I was sitting in a classroom in school, and I fell asleep during a video. Next thing I know, I'm out in the middle of the woods."

"Which is where I come in." James said, nodding.

"Yeah. That zombie-thing tried to eat me when James shot it. I'm assuming you carried me all the way here?" Lara queried, looking at James.

"Sure did."

"Okay, well, that's me, basically. This world is pretty messed up, by comparison. Jeff, I think I might need a few more lessons." She said. The Squad laughed, and Jeff nodded.

"Yeah, I think so too."

"Well, in the meantime, I guess you can stay with us." James said. "It won't be free board though, you've gotta pull your weight. You're gonna have to work like any other Squadmate."

"I don't mind that, beats anything I might have waiting for me back home." Lara said, smiling. "Oh, by the way," She said, looking down at the leather work clothes she was wearing, "What happened to my clothes?" Miranda looked up from her almost empty flask.

"I thought they were a bit unsuitable for this world, so I put them in the chest next to the guest bed you were in. I washed 'em too. By the way, you're gonna have to pick an Occupation while you're with us. You wanna dig, chop, make or fight?" Miranda said, motioning to the boys, herself, Jeff and James in turn. Lara considered this, and then looked at James.

"Fighting sounds fun."

Miranda and James glanced at each other, and smiled.

"This should be fun." James murmured.


	6. Chapter 6: How To Slay - Be Swift

Chapter 6: How to Slay-Be Swift

The next day, Lara's lessons in combat began.

"Alright," said James, clapping his hands together, "First idea of Slaying is to be aware of all aspects of your surroundings. You need to know what's going on, where it's happening, and what that's gonna mean for your Squadmates." James placed the last of his knives in the sheathes on his chest and belted his gun to his hip. Lara looked at it for a moment, and then looked up at James.

"What kind of a gun is that?" she asked, motioning to the firearm in question.

"It's called a lupara. It means 'For the wolf'. It originated in a place far from here called Lupo Peak, which means Wolf Peak. Its original purpose was to hunt wolves, as you can probably guess. Lot's of the buggers up there, huge packs of them. Wolves I mean, not Lupos." James said, stumbling a bit over the last few words.

"So…it's a sawn-off?" Lara said slowly.

"…yeah. It's a sawn-off."

James then retrieved his bow from the chest at the foot of his bed, shutting it behind him, and handed the bow and a quiver full of arrows to Lara. As she looked over them, James made his way to the front door. He went outside, Lara hurrying to catch up with him. All of a sudden, he stopped moving, and Lara walked into his back. She backed up and James turned back to her.

"Watch where you're going, huh? Alrighty, first rule you gotta follow to keep yourself intact, is to be swift. You need to move fast and keep yourself out of danger in order to keep an eye on your buddies." James said. "You ever heard of free running?"

"That's like running and jumping and flipping and stuff, yeah?" Lara said, slinging the quiver and bow over her shoulders.

"Basically. When you start to get technical though, it's a lot more complicated. Now, the first basic idea of being swift is to not overextend your body. You want to stick to manoeuvres that you are capable of pulling off without injuring yourself."

"So nothing too fancy?" Lara queried.

"Exactly. Now try and keep up." James said. Then, without warning, he bolted off, sprinting to the front fence and vaulting over the metre-tall barrier. After a brief moment of shock, Lara snapped back to reality and sprinted after him. She jumped atop a raised flowerbed and used as a stepping stone to the fence, which she then jumped off and landed on the gravel path beyond.

James turned back from his place at the end of the path, where the nearby oak forest began.

"Exactly. Take your time until you get the hang of it. Then start getting creative." He said, before taking off again, into the trees. Lara followed, tightening the strap on the quiver to keep in from bouncing on her shoulder. She sprinted full-bore into the mass of trees, dodging low-hanging branches as she went. She caught occasional glimpses of James through the trees, seeing him leaping over fallen trees. Lara spotted a log in front of her, and used it to her advantage. She jumped as high as she was able, landing atop the fallen tree, and then pushed off once more; leaping over a pothole in the game trail she was following.

She hit the dirt again and continued running, spotting yet another obstacle in her way. There was a low hanging branch crossing the breadth of the track, and she ducked. She didn't see the mud below the branch. Her boots slipped on the mud and she slid under the branch. She managed to regain her balance, and then returned to her feet to sprint again.

Eventually, she came to a river. She spotted James sitting on a rock in the middle of the waterway, and she made for him. She saw no bridge, no easy way of crossing. She realised she had to think creatively, and she turned for a log that lay near the water's edge. She used it as a stepping stone and leapt up to grab a tree branch that hung over the water.

Making use of her five years of gymnastics classes, she swung herself up and over the branch, releasing her grip and sailing through the air to land on the far side. She misjudged her angle somewhat, however, landing with a splash in the shallows by the bank. James, on his rocky perch, laughed manically, falling into the water himself. He swam over to her, and stood in the shallows, offering her a hand.

"Nice, you've nearly got the hang of that already. You're better than the last guy, that's for sure."


	7. Chapter 7: How To Slay-Snap Like A Whip

Chapter 7: How to Slay – Snap like a Whip

As Lara lay on the bank of the river, drying in the sun, James sat atop a tree stump, wrapping his knuckles with boxing tape.

"Who was that other guy you mentioned?" Lara enquired.

"Huh? Oh, nah, there was no other guy, it's just a phrase that Workers use sometimes, if we think an Apprentice is doing a lot better than is expected." James said, tying off his tape and rising, then removing his shirt, casting it across a rock where he had left his weapons. Lara rose from the sand, and then went to ground again, spying James, shirtless and looking at her expectantly.

"Whoa! Wasn't counting on that!" Lara said, flushing red with embarrassment.

"Ah, don't be a child! Those who are shy generally don't go well in a fight." James said, scowling. Lara sighed and rose again, pushing her weapons aside and moving towards James.

"You can do as you like, but this is how I fist-fight." James said, motioning towards his attire, before taking a wide, somewhat low crouching stance, his left foot forward, and raising his hands to guard his face. His fingers were almost but not quite clenched into a fist. Lara took a similar stance, but with her legs straight and her hands balled tightly into fists.

"I see errors already." James noted, before moving out of his stance. He motioned for Lara to hold her stance, and then walked around her, correcting her stance errors.

"You wanna have your legs bent slightly, so you can absorb tackles and things like that. Keep your shoulders nice and loose; it actually makes it a harder surface than when they're tensed. Keep your head just a little lower than you normally hold it, in case something comes from behind. Aaaaaannd…yeah. Your hands. Not just fists, in case you need to grasp something in the middle of a fight. You wanna be able to adapt to whatever is coming at you every second."

When Lara's stance was corrected, James returned to his place and took his own stance.

"Something you will learn quickly here, if you see someone doing something better than you, imitation is better than pride. Copy people, it'll help you and complement them."

James then shifted his weight slightly, and pushed off through the sand. He sprinted for Lara, raising a fist in the process. Lara ducked his first stroke, but was caught in the shoulders by his elbow, which came down hard and pushed her into the ground. James then offered her a hand.

"Counter-attack quicker and that won't happen." He said. Lara took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. The two then took their stances once more.

A faint self-defence memory came to Lara's mind, and she decided on her next move. When James went for his next punch, she grabbed his wrist with one hand and drove her open palm onto his knuckles. James grunted and attempted to withdraw, his right fist numb. Lara pulled tighter and drew him closer, slamming her fist into his gut.

The impact nearly broke her knuckles. Her fist rebounded weakly off his abdominals and he used the opportunity to twist her arm around and shove her back into the sand.

"Better." He said as she picked herself up. "When you punch, throw your entire body into it. The more parts moving at once, the more momentum and the harder the hit. You gotta get your whole body to snap, just like a whip."

Lara's next attack was a stunner. She simultaneously rotated her hips and torso, dropped her shoulder, and extended her entire arm, every joint at once. Her fist flew at an unnatural speed towards James' core. He caught her fist in both hands and used the momentum, flinging himself into a back flip, landing lightly on a rock behind him, whereupon he sprang back at Lara, tackling her to the ground.

He got to his feet, and then helped the battered girl to her feet. He then went to retrieve his shirt and remove his tape.

"What, end-of-lesson, *cough* just like that?" Lara asked, winded from the tackle.

"Yep. We can pick it up later. Now I gotta teach you how to shoot."

Lara smiled and retrieved her bow and quiver.


	8. Chapter 8: How To Slay - Feel The Shot

Chapter 8: How to Slay – Feel the Shot

"Alrighty, haven't practiced with a bow for some time. I can tell you this much…" James said as Lara took her position atop a nearby boulder.

"It's a recurve bow, with a decent amount of power without too much draw weight. A proper longbow would be too hard to use for one with so little muscle…" he said, and Lara snorted.

"…and a shortbow isn't powerful enough to hurt anything that would already want to hurt you. And don't even talk about crossbows. They are too damn expensive." James said, shaking his head.

"And your gun isn't?" Lara said, cocking her head.

"Not my gun, my lupara. Guns are for soldiers, this is more elegant. This weapon was a gift, and Jeff crafts the ammunition himself, provided I get the materials for him." James replied. He then clambered into a smaller tree near the boulder Lara was perched on, loading his lupara.

"Okay. Now, on one knee, and draw. No, no arrow. Just draw the string. Alright," he said, studying her form, "you gotta draw less with your arm, more with your back. Rotate your shoulder back as far as you can, then go to full draw with your arm."

Lara corrected this, and James nodded.

"Okie dokie, now you can take an arrow. Nock it and draw, hold the position."

Lara complied.

"Okay, that's a good position actually. Now, pick your target. Now, I want you to expel every last bit of air out of your lungs. Then, inhale as deeply as you can and hold your breath. Hold yourself steady, feel where the shot is gonna go. When you think you've got a shot, release the arrow."

Lara thought for a moment, and then decided that the moment was right. She released the arrow, and it shot away, the bowstring snapping against the leather vambrace she wore on her forearm. The arrow sailed along her finger, then into the air, crossing the beach in a split second, and striking a tree branch across the river. The arrow punched clean through the wood, sticking through the middle of the branch.

James whistled, marvelling at the skill with which she made the shot. Then, he withdrew a small tin can from his pack. He pitched it into the air, then raised the lupara and let go with both barrels. The buckshot punctured the air and shredded the can, the pieces of tin dropping into the river and floating away in the current.

After the deafening blast, Lara laughed and drew another arrow. She nocked it, and then drew and released, a little less smoothly than the last shot. The arrow tumbled, dropping into the shallows. James looked across, expecting to see Lara fuming. Instead, she was pouting comically.

James tried to control himself, couldn't, then burst in to laughter, toppling from his perch and plummeting into the river once more.


	9. Chapter 9: Creatures of the Night

Chapter 9: Creatures of the Night

As the sun sank lower in the sky, James and Lara prepared to make the trek back to the Workshop. As the shadows grew longer, Lara began to hear sounds carried on the winds.

Moans.

"…you hear that?" asked James, pausing before they started walking.

"…yeah. Creepy." Lara replied, nodding and looking around.

"Those are the sounds that fill the night around here. Closer to the cities, it's rarer. Out here, it's all-pervading."

The two made their way through the trees, stepping lightly to avoid making any noises that would give themselves away. James, being the more skilled free-runner of the two, gradually made his way higher and higher, until he was leaping silently through the lower canopy of the trees. Lara made use of the thin leather shoes she wore and flitted stealthily along the forest floor, sliding easily between the shadows.

Eventually, James paused in his headlong rush through the treetops, coming to abrupt halt. Lara followed suit, and James motioned for her to drop to the floor. She did so, trying to blend with the leaf litter on the ground. She must have been successful, for as James looked around, he turned his head back to Lara, and searched for a few seconds worriedly before spying her figure on the ground, then sighing with relief.

"Psst…see, by the birch over there?" James whispered, motioning towards a nearby white-barked tree. Lara looked, and caught her second glimpse of terror in this world. Over by the tree, attempting to draw an arrow from a quiver from its back was a walking skeleton.

It was only bone, sure enough, but it was capable of moving as if it had a full muscular system as well. Its hollow skull appeared to see, despite its lack of eyes. It smoothly withdrew the shaft from the quiver, and then nocked it in a shortbow. It raised the weapon, and then launched the arrow into the night. It stuck in a tree a few metres away, and the skeleton moved away.

"Practicing." whispered James. "Why don't you…put him down?" he asked. Lara nodded and got to her knees. She unslung her recurve bow and drew an arrow. She nocked, drew, waited a moment, and then smoothly released. The arrow sailed through the night, before puncturing the thin temple of the skeleton's skull. The skull detached from the skeleton and flew away, landing with a '_thud_' on the forest floor, where it turned to dust, taking the arrow with it. The rest of the skeleton fell to pieces, as if the skull was a keystone, and it too, turned to dust.

"Good shot. Now let's go find a way across that river." James said, nodding at Lara as she replaced her bow on her back.

-0-

About half an hour later, James and Lara found themselves by the riverbank again. They stopped at James' signal and crouched in the reeds in the shallows.

"Up there, see? There's the bridge. The road on the other side leads right to our Workshop. We'll say hello to the bridge guard while we're…wait."

James poked his head above the reeds, then gasped and grabbed Lara by the wrist, urging her out of the water.

"Get that bow out, damn it! He needs help!" James yelled before drawing his lupara, releasing Lara's wrist and loading his weapon. He then took off, sprinting up towards the bridge. Lara drew her bow and nocked an arrow before following suit. She looked to the bridge and saw a person atop the bridge. It was a grizzled man, with a greying beard, brandishing a heavy iron broadsword, at least metre and a half in length, and sporting a chainmail coif atop a suit of ring mail armour.

He was engaging in combat with a spider. A spider the size of a small car.

It was a big, black, hairy creature with fangs like daggers and huge eyes, glowing hell-red. It skittered on the wooden surface off the bridge, clicked its huge fangs and screeched as it flicked a powerful limb at the grizzled swordsman. He brought his blade up and parried, then twisted the blade around and hacked the limb in two. The spider screeched again, and lunged at him, brushing him aside and knocking him to the floor.

It descended upon him, but moments before it could sink its fangs into the old man, another of its legs was incapacitated. It was pinned to one of the bridge supports by Lara's arrow.

It let out another screech, which would be its last, as James then leapt onto the bridge and fired his lupara, the pellets punching through its carapace and making mincemeat of its insides. It collapsed, and James struggled to shift it off its would-be victim. He needn't have bothered.

The man shunted the enormous corpse, which had just begun to liquefy, off of his body and James helped him to his feet. James then handed a knife to Lara.

"Lara, cut the eyes out of that spider, they're very valuable. Hurry, before it melts!"

Lara complied, trying not to vomit as she removed the orbs from the sockets. She managed to save two before the body melted. She handed them to James, who pocketed them and turned to the old swordsman, who spoke first.

"Evenin', James. Thanks for the help, damn thing nearly had me. I was headin' back to my guardhouse to get a cup of tea when…_holy shit_!" The man screamed, throwing himself to the floor. James made a similar motion, instead flinging himself off the bridge and, once again, into the water. Lara, arrow already nocked, spun around, drew and released without thinking.

The arrow felled her target in one smooth movement. The arrow sliced through its skull and continued on into the darkness, and the creature dropped. Lara moved up cautiously to study it. It was a four-legged creature, with mottled green skin, which had a slimy sheen to it. Its eyes were enormous black caverns, and its mouth was locked in an eternal silent scream. The two warriors joined her, old man with his broadsword, James dripping wet once more.

"Thanks lass, glad you had the good sense to off him. I don't believe we've been introduced. My name's Chris, I'm the Gatekeeper by royal appointment for this Province. And the thing you just killed is what we in the business call a 'creeper'." The warrior said, shouldering his blade. Lara noticed he carried no sheath for his sword.

"What do they do?" she asked timidly, wondering why these two competent fighters were cowering at the sight of the liquefying corpse.

"They _explode_, lass. They're called creepers because they creep up on you, almost silently. Then, they hiss just a little. Then, they swell a bit…then…_BOOM!"_ Chris cried, startling Lara and making her fall into the remains of the creeper. She squealed and hurried to extricate herself. Chris laughed, slapping his knee in delight.

James helped her up, retrieving his knife in the process, then scooped a handful of grey powder out of the body just as it disappeared.

"Gunpowder." answered James, seeing Lara's questioning look. "Jeff will want this."

-0-

Chris sent the two Slayers on their way home, his post momentarily forgotten by the creatures that stalk the night. As the two walked, Lara queried James about something that had been weighing on her mind.

"James?"

"Mhm?"

"_Is_ there a way for me to go home?"

"…I don't know. Perhaps a sorcerer like an Alchemist or a Thaumaturgist could help. Not me though."

"A Thauma-what?"

"…heh, never mind. I'll explain more later. C'mon, the Workshop's only a short way's away."

And with that, James shot off again, sprinting, leaping, rolling and cackling with delight. Lara joined him, the laughter of the two filling the night air.

**Alrighty, this is Boone breaking comm silence. Thanks to all who have read and followed so far, though I ask that you please review as well. If this is sounding all WAY too cliché, please tell me so I can give it a mercy killing before it goes too far. Story-wise, I'm kinda winging it, building up the world at the same rate Lara learns about it, but I very much want to include something from Thaumcraft in the main plot, specifically…the Eldritch Beings. If you've got any ideas, PM me or leave a review. If you have a good idea for a character, build up a backstory for them and I just might include them; likewise, if enough people tell me to kill someone off, I might just. Cheers all, Boone out. **


	10. Chapter 10: The Call-Up

Chapter 10: The Call-Up

The next day, Lara awoke to a somewhat overcast morning. The very air seemed to convey a sense of foreboding, like an invisible messenger bringing tidings of dimness. For the moment at least, sleeping arrangements in the Workshop were somewhat cramped, one of the old beds having fallen apart. At present, the Twins were bunking together, as always they had, and each of the giants, Jordan and Carter, needed a bed to themselves because of their sheer bulk. Jeff and James were rotating a night-long watch to give the bed-less person something to do, the person not on watch taking one of the beds, and Lara had to share the remaining single bed with Miranda.

When Lara had rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she noticed that Miranda had her arm around her. She started and tried to free herself, nudging Miranda in the gut.

"Hey, get off, huh?"

"mmmmmm…huh? Oh, right." Miranda said as she stirred, removing the wayward limb from Lara's body and curling up as Lara climbed out of bed and donned her work clothes. She then picked up the knife that Jeff had fashioned for her and sheathed it. Thus accoutred, she made her way to the washbasin to splash some water over her face. She did so, the cold liquid jolting her mind into action.

"Okay, Lara. Let's do something useful." She said to herself.

"That's a good motto to have." said James, striding through the door, pausing to yawn, and then plonking himself down at the table. "How about breakfast?"

"…I…can't cook." Lara said slowly. James paused for a moment, turning to face her.

"…you serious?"

It was at that moment that Jeff arrived, seating himself by James and drawing his knife, proceeding to carve a small but intricate flower design into the tabletop. He stopped however, when a small red light flickered into life on the wall next to him. James, too, stopped what he was doing. They looked at the light for a while, and Lara, fascinated by this strange occurrence, also stared at the small red light. It was pulsating ever so slightly.

The rest of the Squad suddenly showed up, and they, too, seemed transfixed by the light. After a short span of minutes, a voice broke the silence. It was James.

"…we never get mail."

Then, as one, the entire Squad sprinted for the door, James and Jeff knocking over their bench in the process. Lara stood there in shock for a moment, and then joined the mad rush for the door. The Squad threw themselves out of the doorway and the nearby window as well, the Twins scampering out of the empty window frame that the zombie head had smashed a few days ago. James was the first to the small brick structure by the gate, which Lara now recognised as a post-box. He opened it and pulled out a small slip of paper with a red wax seal on the bottom. The seal read: DESK OF THE NEXUS CITY PLANNER, in minute letters in a circle around the effigy of a tower.

The letter read thus:

Squad (437),  
You have been called upon in these extraordinary times to assist your fellow workers in the great capital of our nation, the Nexus, in expanding the limits of our walls. While you will not be working on the walls themselves, you will be involved in:  
(Extracting ore deposits and laying foundations for future structures over the top.)  
You will of course have your pay doubled for the duration of your call-up, and upon completion of the new section of the city, you are hereby promised a bonus in the form of (10) (bars) of (purest gold).  
Sincerely,  
Joseph Maybelie Esq.

"Stupid bloody template letters, wish they would send us proper correspondence." said Jeff, disgustedly.

"Ah well, they're too busy and we're too minor." James replied resignedly. "Ok boys and girls, pack your bags, we're off to the Nexus!"

The Squad cheered, somewhat half-heartedly. Lara looked questioningly at James.

"Lara, Squads sometimes get calls like this. We've gotten a call-up to do work where they are short-staffed in our nation's capital city, the Nexus. Looks like we've got a little more 'diggy-diggy' ahead of us, but you never know, we might be posted as sentries in case something nasty makes it through the city wall or appears below ground."

"Oh good, I like sentry duty."

**Well, that was that. Getting some juicy storyline going here. Sorry these chapters are taking so long but I'm not getting a huge amount of writing time these days. I'll try and get some more out of decent length sometime soon, and I just got on school holidays so that should help some. Again, read, review, and if you like it; favourite! Also, I'm still up for suggestions in terms of storyline and maybe characters. (Shoutout to Crimson Dawnbreak, I like the idea.)  
Boone, out. **


	11. Chapter 11: Come Hell or High Water

Chapter 11: Come Hell or High Water

Squad 437, loaded up with rucksacks and duffel bags full of gear and supplies, trekked along the track leading to the Nexus. Lara and James were the only ones unburdened, having only a small satchel each, hanging by their sides, full of both food and in James' case, ammunition. Lara, at the back of the pack, called up to James at the head.

"Hey, how far away is the Nexus anyway?" she asked. Jordan was the one to respond.

"Several hundred miles that-a-way." He said, jerking his thumb and gesturing in the opposite direction to the one they were presently travelling in.

"Then where are we going now?" she asked. This time, Carter piped up.

"We're going to Hell." He said plainly, as if it was an everyday activity. James hurried to explain, letting Miranda lead the pack for a while.

"They've cordoned off a section of what we in the business call the Nether. Now it's a huge, heavily-defended railway line, like a highway that leads right to the Nexus. Thing is, see, a short distance in the Nether is a much larger distance in the Overworld, which is where we are. It's a quick and convenient travel system, and safer than you might think." He said, before reaching into his satchel and retrieving a pair of shotgun shells, loading his lupara with them.

"…but you'd rather be safe than sorry." Lara finished, eyeing up the weapon.

"Yep." James replied, flicking his wrist and snapping the breech shut with an oddly satisfying '_clack_'.

The Squad arrived at a large rectangle made of some kind of black stone, in the shape of an enormous door. Within the 'doorway' was a glowing purple aura. Eerie sounds emanated from it, and upon merely seeing it, every neuron in Lara's body was screaming at her not to run, but to wipe the abomination off the face of the planet.

"James…I've got a bad feeling about this." She said. Jeff sniffed and strode right up to the doorway, stepping within the purple glow. Within a few seconds, he disappeared. The rest of the Squad followed. James and Lara were the only ones left in the Overworld.

"Hey, truth be told, I'm gettin' the same vibe as you from this thing. I don't wanna go this way either, but it's the quickest way, and the only alternative is to trek for a month through some of the harshest terrain we know. Lots of mountains 'tween here and the Nexus, and we're probably the only ones physically capable of surviving the journey." James said soothingly. "If you like, I'll hold your hand. But either way, we're going to Hell."

Lara took another look at the portal, and then decided.

"Fine, I'll go. But you're getting me some of that cider that Miranda has when we get to the Nexus." She said. James laughed.

"Alright, I'll get it for ya, hip flask and all."

The two then turned and stepped through the portal.

-0-

Lara felt her body being put back together after being ripped apart by the hellish purple. She stepped out of the awful glow with James and found herself in a metal room. The rest of the squad was assembled, as were a group of men in grey vests. The strange men were posted around the room in various strategic locations, and every one of them carried a firearm. These firearms were all compact with magazines jutting out of the grips and folding wire stocks. They also had the number 1000 stamped on the metal of the receiver.

"BT-1000 submachine guns." James stated, noticing Lara's fascination with the weapons. "Come on."

James strode over to the end of the room, where a small train waited. The rest of the Squad were already mounting the vehicle, crouching low in small metal boxes that passed as train cars. In a heavily-armoured locomotive and caboose sat BT-1000-wielding men and in the locomotive, an engineer.

James and Lara joined the Squad and as they took their positions, the train began to move off. It left the platform and moved into a clear tunnel. Beyond the clear material of the construction, Lara could see an ocean of lava beneath them, and endless bright red rock formations leading into the distance. Fires burnt everywhere, ignited by flares from the lava flows that appeared all over the place. The rocks themselves appeared to burn!

"That red crap's called Netherrack. It burns but doesn't break down the rock. A chunk of that rock will burn forever." Rob called. Tom followed up with his own comment.

"See if you can spot any _locals_." He said. Something about his tone made Lara nervous.

"What kind of locals?" Lara inquired with mock casualness. Jeff was the one to respond.

"Strange mutations are caused by the dark energies of this place. Mutations between the undead and ordinary pigs created Zombie Pigmen, strange chimeras which fashion golden blades for themselves with the corrupted minerals that occur naturally in this dimension." Lara was disgusted by this explanation and looked instead at the bottom of her cart.

"That's not the only wildlife out there!" called the guard in the locomotive.

"What're you doing Jansen? You're breaking protocol!" the rear guard cried, waving his submachine gun.

"Screw it, man! Hostiles inbound, and we can't stop 'em!" Jansen called back, raising his weapon, displaying it's futility against what was bearing down upon the tunnel.

Outside the track was a huge floating…_jellyfish_. It had eyes, though, and a mouth. The eyes were closed, and as far as Lara could tell, it was…_crying_.

"What the hell is that?!" She screamed, taking up her bow and nocking a broadhead arrow.

"Ghast! They blow shit up!" James replied, drawing his lupara from its slightly-too-large holster at his hip and holding it at the ready.

Lara stared down the creature before her, hovering blindly towards the tunnel. It opened its eyes, revealing to orbs of fire where eyeball should be. The two guards pulled small devices out of their train cars and pressed a button on each of them. Lara saw the hellish purple glow surround them once more, and soon the entire train was enveloped. Suddenly, the Ghast opened its mouth and from it came a ball of flame, which flew towards the tunnel, which at that moment was passing over an enormous lava sea. There would be no way of surviving if the tunnel as destroyed, as they would either perish in the blast or in the lava below.

Then, moments before the fireball hit, surely obliterating a section of tunnel and causing the sections around it to plunge into the lava sea, the train disappeared.

_Splash!_

Lara plunged into the sea with the rest of the squad, the train crew, and the train itself. It was not, however, an ocean of lava, but of cold, salty water. It was a brilliant blue, and apart from the disturbance the train had caused, the water was very calm. While the train sank, the occupants swam upwards to the surface. Except for the engineer and the rear guard.

As Lara broke the surface, she found Jansen, the front guard, looking desperately for his comrades.

"Where the hell are they?! Come on, don't be dead guys, don't be dead…" he yelled, floundering about, looking around. Lara could see there was nothing she could do to console him. She swam over to James, who had retrieved a flare gun from Jeff's pack and was preparing to fire it.

"So that's a Ghast!" she laughed, then let her laughter die when she saw the look on James' face. He was clearly not happy with the events of the day. When she looked back at Jansen, he was crying and beating the water with his fists. It almost brought a tear to Lara's eye. She hardened up however, when James fired the flare. Miranda pointed to the west, where a large object was appearing on the horizon. James swam over.

"Zeppelin." He said. "Looks like it might be the Marines. Lucky us, we might get a ride to the Nexus."

"Looks like that's where they're headed." Tom said. He and Rob were in curious positions. Tom was hitching a ride on the back of Jordan, and Rob was on Carter's back also. Rob explained, seeing her amused expression.

"We can't swim."

When the armoured zeppelin did arrive, it certainly was crewed by Marines, their enormous crest, futuristic crossed gun and sword, emblazoned upon the side of the ship. The Marines themselves descended upon a smaller craft, a helicopter of sorts, and retrieved the train occupants from the water.

When they arrived in the hangar of the armour-plated zeppelin, the captain was there to greet them. James and Jansen moved to him.

"James, Slayer and Sergeant of Squad 437. We were on our way to the Nexus when we were hit by a Ghast, we were following a Call-up. Jansen here is the last surviving crewmember of our train."

"I'm Vassili, captain of the _Astral_. Welcome aboard. Did you say you were on a Call-up as well? Seems like they've called up every Squad in the nation this time."

"Really? There's that many of us?" James said, startled.

"Sure is. Come, we'll get you some cabins. Your Squad can ride with us to the Nexus."

"Much obliged, friend."

-0-

Later, in their cabin in the depths of the zeppelin, James conversed with Lara.

"There's a whole military structure in the Nation. You've got your general Guards, like the ones on the train. They act as a police force and general security. Normally they only have shotguns, lever-action, you know? The Nether Guards though, they have those BT-1000s. Then you've got these guys, the Marines. They're like your general military, with all the kinds of hardware that you'd expect general infantry to have."

"Like AK-47s and stuff, yeah?"

"What's that?"

"…never mind."

"Okay…next, you've got the NanoTroop. Those guys are like, elite. They've got carbon-fibre armour, laser rifles, the whole nine yards and a few inches more. They've even got _jetpacks_. They're flying knights in matte-black armour with industrial-grade lasers!"

"Wow. How do you join them?"

"I don't know if they let _mortals_ join their ranks. Nah, I'm kidding, but seriously, they only pull the very best out of the Marines to join the NanoTroop. Anyone else isn't even considered. And don't even dream about the Quantum Guard."

"Who're they?"

"Never you mind. Now, it's late, and I wanna get some shut-eye before we make port. It's best to go into a bustling city with a clear head, especially with all the thieves and other criminals that you're bound to find in crowded areas."James explained, climbing onto his bunk. Lara flicked the lock on the door shut and went for her bunk, then reconsidered.

She climbed onto James' bunk and nestled in close. James gave her a questioning look.

"I'm cold, alright?" she said.

So he threw his arm over her, and they slept.

**Alrighty, almost to the Nexus. The Quantum Guard and the NanoTroop sound cool, huh? They might play a big part later, so we'll see how this goes. Lots of science lately, there'll be magic soon, I promise. My usual spiel: review if you please, and I'm still taking suggestions for story and characters. See y'all around. Boone, out. **

**(By the way, James/Lara yes or no?)**


	12. Chapter 12: Welcome to the Nexus!

Chapter 12: Welcome to the Nexus!

Lara exited the zeppelin first. The craft had docked in a civilian tower for a change to let the special passengers off. The rest of Squad 437 followed close behind her. Lara made her way over to the nearest window, which James had told her gave a decent view of the entire Nexus. She looked beyond the glass pane, and her jaw dropped.

Arrayed before her was a sprawling metropolis, the likes of which she had never seen. In her world, she had seen cities before, but nothing like what she saw now. Enormous skyscrapers jutted high into the sky, carving gashes in the clouds above. Zeppelins passed slowly between the towers, docking occasionally with buildings to take on or drop off cargo and passengers. Advertisements for businesses were plastered on the sides of larger ones, and some smaller crafts were intended _solely_ for being floating advertisements.

Below, the streets were quite different to what Lara expected. There was no bitumen in sight, but instead a system of canals, just like a city Lara had heard of in her world. Small boats moved back and forth in the water below. On top of all this, small aircraft like planes and helicopters swooped gracefully between the skyscrapers and around the serene zeppelins.

The buildings themselves were all concrete and metal, fairly plain but strangely appealing to the eye despite that fact. They looked just like what one might find back in Lara's homeland, albeit grander. She turned around and saw that like many of the towers around her, this tower had a huge hollow halfway up, and the zeppelin had flown halfway through and docked within the building's 'hangar'.

It should have been utter chaos, and it probably was when you were in the thick of it, but from up here it looked calming, with everything working like a well oiled machine.

"Impressive, huh?" James said, placing his hand on her shoulder. She turned to face him.

"Sure is. How long did this all take to build?" Lara asked incredulously.

"Generations, darlin', whole damn generations." He replied. "This is the pride and joy of the whole Nation, and we've put a hell of a lot of work into it. This is my fifth Call-up and my seventh trip here altogether."

"Wow, an old-timer." Lara replied dryly. The Squad regrouped by a stand that was selling cookies in small plastic packets. James retrieved a small silver coin with the letters 'NC' stamped on it from his pocket and threw it to the salesman, who caught it and pocketed it, then threw a packet of cookies to James, who shared them with the Squad.

"Alright, you've all got free rein for tonight, and tomorrow at dawn we report to the foreman's office at our site. We're staying in the 13th District, you can meet me by the gates at midnight, and I'll show y'all to our hostel. For now, have fun. What're y'all doin'?" James inquired of his Squad. Jeff was the first to speak.

"I'm heading down to the business end of town, going to meet an old friend who actually did well for himself." He said. The Twins followed up.

"We're gonna go cause some trouble at Hastings'." They replied in unison.

"Alright, but if you get busted up by the Guards, I ain't bailing you out." James said disapprovingly.

"We're going to find some of the good stuff." Jordan said, motioning to himself and Carter. Lara presumed the 'good stuff' was liquor.

"I don't know what the chickadee here was planning," Miranda said, pointing to Lara, "But I'm gonna take her out and get her some proper gear. Hell, maybe even a firearm, if you'll shell out." Her last statement was made directly to James.

"He got a tight wallet, huh?" Lara asked of Miranda, motioning to the Slayer in question.

"Notorious." She replied, nodding.

"Alright, alright, but I'm helpin' her pick one." James replied.

-0-

'Nexus Firearms', the sign boldly stated. Simple enough, thought Lara. James had said that this place was the best in the Nation to get powerful, reliable, and (most importantly) cheap firepower. The storefront was made entirely of glass, which was surprising for a store that sold weapons. James noticed her staring at the storefront.

"Bulletproof glass, reinforced with special alloys. The same stuff the Nether train tunnel was made of. That stuff can take any hit from crowbars, chainsaws, jackhammers, even small arms fire! You need proper artillery to break in." he explained, pointing this out as they entered the store. Lara expected to be wandering up aisles full of guns on shelves like a supermarket, and she saw almost exactly what she expected, but she wouldn't be perusing said firearms. There was only a small space for customers, inside a steel cage, with a small gap around a desk on one side. At said desk sat the store owner.

"James! Buddy! How you been?" the man cried when they entered.

"Frank! You still stinkin' up this joint?" James cried in reply. He moved to the desk to shake the man's hand vigorously. "Doing good, man? Things are getting' mighty busy these days!"

"Yeah, tell me about it. So many mercenaries these days, lookin' for a piece to keep 'em alive. Who's this lovely lady?" Frank asked, motioning to Lara.

"This is Lara; she's new to the Squad. She's a Slayer, and I reckon she needs a weapon that doesn't fling sticks." James explained, motioning to the bow slung over her shoulder.

"Alrighty then, I'll see what I can do. I'll even give you a discount, payback for the Long 10." Frank said, the last part somewhat bitterly.

"Thanks, friend." James said. Frank moved to the side of the desk and unlocked the cage gate, motioning for James and Lara to join him. They entered and Frank locked the cage behind him.

"Got any experience with firearms at all?" Frank asked, moving towards the section of the store labelled 'Longarms'.

"…ummm…I've been skeet-shooting once."Lara said slowly. "It hurt like hell, but I think I remember how to use a shotgun." Frank hefted a shotgun with two barrels stacked on top of each other. He seemed to disapprove of its weight, so he put it down.

"Any experience with rifles at all?" he said, motioning to the opposite aisle, which was lined with rifles of various types. From listening to her younger brother, a gun nut, she could recognise that most were bolt-action, with a few lever-repeaters among them.

"No, but I think I could do without them. I know shotguns. That's what I'd like." Lara said, shaking her head at the longarms. They turned back to the shotgun rack, and Lara pointed to a large black metal briefcase on the top shelf.

"What's in that?" Lara inquired.

"Ah, that's a full load-out, not cheap." Frank replied, taking the case down and laying it on a small table that stood by it, clearly used for weapon inspection. He popped the locks on the case and opened the lid, revealing, quite possibly, the most badass-looking firearm Lara had ever seen.

Dominating the case was a pump-action shotgun, made of matte-black alloy with a beige carbon-fibre pump and grip. The weapon had no buttstock, and she could see seven empty slots on the side of the weapon for holding spare shells. Below the weapon was a folded pistol belt and a companion firearm in the form of a semi-automatic pistol. The sidearm had a silver slide and a shiny black plate on each side of the grip.

"You like?" Frank said, nodding at Lara comically and motioning towards the case and its contents.

"Very much." She replied, turning to James. "Can I?" she asked. James sighed and reached into his satchel, retrieving a small card. It had the same letters stamped on it as the coin Lara saw earlier.

"Put it on the card, Frank." He said. "I'll work out the payment later."

"Alright buddy. I'll make the deadline years from now so you can get some funds going." Franks replied. "You need anything else?" he said, as he took the card. He took the card to his desk and inserted it into his computer. Lara assumed this must be like a credit card of sorts, or perhaps just a record-keeper for debts. A few seconds later, the card was ejected and Frank handed it back to James, who returned it to its place in his satchel.

"Actually, yeah." James replied. "I need a little something as well, in the semi-automatic department. I've got funds for this one on me right now." He said, lifting a small, jangling bag from his satchel and placing it on the desk. Frank nodded and took the bag, placing it in a safe below his desk. He then took James over to the 'Semi-Auto' section of the store.

Lara waited by the desk for a few minutes, briefcase full of weapons under her arm. When James and Frank returned, the former had a rifle with a long barrel and a short, chunky-looking magazine slung over his shoulder. When they reached the desk, James motioned for Lara to open the case again, and when she did so, he told her to don the belt. She complied, slotting the sidearm into the left holster and clipping the shotgun to the right, where a holster was absent.

"Alright, thanks buddy." James said, shaking Frank's hand.

"Come back anytime, friend." He replied, letting Lara and James out of the cage and waving goodbye as they exited the shop.

-0-

"What's that card?" Lara said, pointing at James' satchel.

"Debt-Tracker. Makes handy evidence when chasing up unpaid debts." James replied.

"Okay…and what's the Long 10?" she asked. James was silent for a moment.

"It was a fuck-up, is what it was." He spat. "I'll tell ya some other time…When I'm very, very drunk."

Lara was stunned into silence by his crude outburst. Sounds like painful memories, Lara thought, I think I should leave that alone.

Afterwards, James and Lara were crossing a canal, when they ran into Jordan on the bridge. He was carrying a canvas bag full of unlabelled glass bottles, which were full of what looked very much like whiskey.

"Hey guys!" he said jovially. "Fancy meetin' you here!"

"Hey, Jordan. Say, would you be able to take Lara on a tour of all the best watering holes? I've got some business to take care of on the East Side." James said.

"Sure thing, boss!" he replied. "Come on, let's go!" he said, motioning to Lara and then in the direction he was originally heading. Lara waved goodbye to James, who nodded briefly, then walked off. Lara then turned and hurried after Jordan, who had left without her. When she caught up, he was still walking along with a spring in his step. Lara looked to his arms, bared by the singlet he wore, and the tattoos that ringed them.

"Hey Jordan, what are those tattoos for?" Lara asked tentatively.

"Oh, before I escaped to the Nation, known in my home country as the Iron Lands, I was a slave to a cruel master. These tattoos represent chains." Jordan explained. Lara was somewhat shocked by this. Jordan sat down at a bench that was one of many placed at regular intervals on the street they were on. Lara joined him, and he pointed to the tattoo on his right arm.

"See how each link has a tiny gap? The broken chains represent my newfound freedom."

"If you were a slave…how are you as smart as James says you are?" Lara said quizzically.

"Simple. I'm curious, and I pick up on things really easily. It wasn't hard to fit twelve years of education into three and enter the workforce by the fourth."

"I see."

-0-

Lara spent the rest of her day with Jordan, visiting bar after bar after bar. By the end of her day, she was an experienced drinker, surprising even Jordan. Come the evening, they made their way to the arranged meeting place with James. The rest of the Squad was already there, and they spent the night at a hostel, as planned. The next day, they would have an early start. The fun was about to begin.

**Okay, there's a little bit of mucking about in the Nexus for you, work starts soon. As always, review if you please, it helps my writing and makes the story, and by extension me, look good. Cheers in advance, Boone out.(By the way, Graham's Prodigy and the BoS oneshots are on hiatus due to lack of inspiration.)  
**


	13. Chapter 13: Huskies on the Rise

Chapter 13: Huskies on the Rise

James led the Squad up to the top of the mountain-sized mound of dirt and slag, skirting small dugouts being used by workers to camp by the digsite. Lara recalled their original purpose at this site: digging up valuable ores from beneath the city and laying foundations in their place for new buildings. The foreman at the top of the hill waved them over as they approached the summit.

"Squad number?" he called, holding up a pen and clipboard and looking at James expectantly.

"Four-three-seven, Sergeant James Catalya reporting. This is Tomas and Robert Fleetfoot, Jordan Ironshod, Carter Stonecut, Jeffrey Fields, Miranda Topleaf, and Lara…"

"Christiansen." she finished.

"Right, got all that. If you need a shovel or pick, get it, if not, get to work. Slayers, take positions around the edges of the pit."

James nodded, saluted, and then led the team past the foreman and to the peak. Lara looked out over the digsite. There was an enormous pit dug before them, some ores visible around the sides, and a layer of thick stone and gravel at the bottom of the pit. Workers were scurrying around the pit like ants.

Miranda and Jeff led the rest of the team down into the digsite, while James led Lara to an empty foxhole by the edge. He set himself up to watch the other side of the pit with his semi-automatic rifle, placing a small metal box, '.308' printed on the side in stencilled yellow, to his left and a small tin can labelled 'Protein' to his right. Lara set herself up behind him, holding her shotgun to the ready and watching the approach to the pit.

"Hey James, what's for lunch?"

"We just had breakfast!"

"Yeah, I'm checking in advance."

James sighed and chucked another 'Protein' can to Lara. She grunted in questioning, motioning to James with the strange container.

"It's basically a cylindrical meatloaf but with chunks of mushroom and beans ingrained in it. There are other kinds for different vitamins and minerals, but that's my particular favourite. Save it for later." James explained as Lara looked over the otherwise blank metal cylinder. Satisfied that she had uncovered all its secrets, she stowed it in her satchel.

* * *

"Hey Lara, check it out. My ten o'clock. Saw something moving in the shadows. They just hit a marble cavern, can you believe that? Yeah, I think there's something hiding in there. Come have a look." James retrieved a pair of binoculars from his satchel and handed them to Lara as she set herself up by her mentor. She raised them to her face as she lay prone and trained it on the location James had specified.

"See? Just beyond that guy with the mining drill." James said.

"You mean the one setting up his drill or the one maybe…ten metres to his left, recharging one?" Lara queried.

"No, no, no, the one setting up, see with the yellow neckerchief?" James corrected.

"Yeah, I got him. Yeah, I think you might be right. We got any way of letting 'em know? I don't wanna startle anyone with a gunshot."

"Nah, people 'round here are used to sporadic gunfire. Even if a shot lands a few metres away from 'em, that'll just prick their ears. It's when gunfire is _sustained_ that people will start to worry." James said as he lined up his rifle. He began to rattle off details about his actions that might have meant something to a soldier, but not to Lara.

"Sighting two-hundred…two-ten metres. Pushing one right, wind speed…shit, maybe ten knots? Target zone acquired. Awaiting clear shot on target."

"…I beg your pardon?"

"I've done time in the Marines, they taught me how to snipe. Those are the details that my spotter would want to know." James explained. "Whoa, hang on! Confirmed target, green coloration, possible Creeper."

"Huh?" Lara looked through the binoculars into the mouth of the marble cave as a miner entered. She saw a flash of green and a gaping mouth.

"_Firing_!" James shouted before pulling the trigger. His rifle _cracked_ and the Creeper's head exploded. The miner didn't even bat an eyelid. He merely turned back and waved into the distance, hoping his saviour would see his appreciation. James turned to Lara.

"Not bad, huh?" he said with a grin.

His grin disappeared as rotting hands closed around his throat. He cried out and began to roll. Lara rolled too, out of the way, rising with her shotgun in her hands. A zombie, or more accurately, _half_ a zombie was assaulting James. It was like the one that had attacked Lara, but it had no legs or lower torso. James grabbed at its neck as it attempted to sink its rotting teeth into his neck, flipping the monster over him and over the edge of the pit. The two Slayers looked over the edge and followed its descent with their eyes.

_Crack! Crack! Blam Blam! Thud! Bam!_

Numerous different-sounding gunshots echoed from positions around the digsite as other Slayers opened fire on the undead assailant, shredding him before he hit the bottom, where the remains began to liquefy. James got up and waved around the pit to say thanks. He turned back to Lara.

"Just another day at the office." he sighed.

Lara shrugged and went for the tin can James had given her. It was time for lunch.

* * *

"Hey, James, Get your ass over here!" Miranda called from the other side of the dugout. The Squad had retired for lunch in a dugout on the hill. She sat with the Twins by a radio that sat upon a small metal barrel. She cranked the volume loud enough for the entire dugout to hear. A special news bulletin was announcing something that was clearly important enough to warrant James interrupting the maintenance of his lupara.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Bad news! Hush, guys!"Miranda replied. Lara moved to join the Squad, as did Jordan, Carter and Jeff. As she did so, she noticed the echoes of the other radios in other dugouts. They were all on the same station, with the same terrifying report.

"Message repeats!" the radio announcer shouted through the speakers. "We have confirmed that the Ice Kingdom has launched an all-out assault on our borders! I say again, the Huskies have broken tensions between our nations in the worst of ways, and I am looking now at live footage of their infamous walker-tanks smashing straight through our lines, our Marines are retreating, it does not look good folks, it-"

Miranda switched off the radio as the world around them descended into chaos. Workers were sprinting everywhere, all desperately heading for places where they could hide. A gunshot rang out, and that was soon followed by a storm of gunfire from all directions.

James grabbed Miranda and drew his lupara, and began to lead the Squad out of the dugout and into the storm. Lara found herself picked up bodily by Jordan, and she counted herself lucky she had all her gear on her at the time. She looked back to see Carter carrying Tom and Rob in his two enormous arms, and Jeff bringing up the rear, holding a small derringer with two barrels stacked on top of each other. He let off two gunshots at a crazed man with a shovel who was charging at him, felling the crazed worker.

Lara climbed out of Jordan's arms and onto his shoulders, pulling out her sidearm in the process. She waved it around and fired at anyone who looked to be moving for their human convoy. .38 caliber bullets flew, and men and women alike fell.

As the Squad fled from the digsite, Lara noticed a boy lying on the ground as Jordan sprinted after James. The boy's head was caved in by a mattock. Jordan payed him no mind and kept running.

It was Tom.

* * *

**Oh Noes, Tom! Well, there's another one for you. Sorry these chapters are so few and far between. And yes, yes I did just put Russian-esque people in my story. You'll get a closer look at them later. For now, panic has taken hold of the Nexus, let's see if Squad 437 can get out alive.  
As always, review if you please, tell me what's good and what's bad. Has this new turn ruined everything? Boone, out.**


	14. Chapter 14: Underground

Chapter 14: Underground

"We're setting up defences all over the city, now that most of the rioters have been routed. When the Huskies and their walkers reach our walls, we're gonna butt-fuck 'em with a chainsaw."

Lara was shocked by the profanity of the Guard conversing with James. The Squad had taken refuge from the riots within the network of sewers, old mining tunnels and natural caverns beneath the Nexus. Rob lay sobbing in the corner at the loss of his brother, his head in Miranda's lap. She stroked his hair softly, whispering to him, attempting to console his loss.

Lara turned to see the defences rigged up hastily around the entrance ramp to the sewer. A tripwire was hung at a point where it would not be tripped, but pressed into the ground, making it less visible in the process. It was rigged to a stick of dynamite and a scattergun mounted between two barrels. Behind said barrels was a Guard with one of their iconic lever-action shotguns, ensuring that any intruders who survived the blasts of the dynamite and shotgun would not proceed any further.

After escaping the digsite and avoiding the rioters who believed that these were their last few days on the planet, Squad 437 had headed underground. James was quick to find a unit of Guards, who told tales of NanoTroop units on the way. They were apparently within a day's travel now, on foot at least. By all reports, their armour provided them a speed boost, allowing them to simply run from place to place.

"…glad these guys are getting here soon, wanna get outta these tunnels, they smell like sh…" James continued, Lara not really paying any attention. She was laying her shotgun out on the table, intending to rearrange her kit. Flechette shells tucked into her gauntlets, slug shells in the slots on the side of the weapon. Ordinary buckshot in the spaces around her pistol belt. Around her left thigh, a belt of .38 pistol rounds for her sidearm, tucked into its holster under her left arm. Shotgun belted to her right hip or in her arms. James' spare knife, _enormous_ bloody thing, sheathed in her right boot.

She had been over this setup countless times since she acquired the weapons. James had told her to make the layout an extension of her own body, so there would be no hesitation when in battle. She would know exactly where to reach for whatever she needed. It had saved her life already, when a drunken rioter had attempted to cleave off her head with a sharpened shovel on the way to the tunnels. James was now calling to Lara, telling her to join him. She approached.

"Whatcha' need?" she queried.

"We're gonna go set up in one of the buildings on the other side of the district, see if we can't spot the NanoTroop."

* * *

After trekking through the tunnels across the district, the Squad re-entered the sunlight by a half wrecked building, which had been destroyed by fire when a rioter had gone crazy with a Molotov Cocktail. Lara was by the doorway, Rob lying prone on the other side of the entrance. James, up in the second story window, called down.

"Got 'em! No less than ten!"

Cheers rang out as the armoured figures came within view. Lara was struck by the sheer terror the armour instilled in her. It was jet-black, with a bright green crystal set into five places in the suit. Where the crown of the skull was sat the first, another in the centre of the chest, another where a belt buckle would sit, and one atop each boot. A sleek black jetpack was fitted to each of their backs and each of them carried a rifle, wires wrapped around the long, thin barrel. The leader had made a non-standard modification to his armour; he had fitted an enormous sheath to either side of his jetpack and within was a pair of swords, which looked…_homemade_.

James strode out of the building and, quite brazenly, approached the NanoTroop leader.

"Good, you're here!" he called as he approached; his weapons all slung and holstered so as not to provoke them. "We've been waiting for ya."

"I can imagine. I'm afraid we won't be much help until we can recycle our laser cells and charge our jetpacks. We took a beating when the Huskies arrived." The leader said in a deep, gravelly, almost robotic voice. His sleek black helmet had a polarised visor, and he flicked it up with his finger.

He was of dark complexion, with a broken nose. He had three scars, all parallel to each other, running down the left side of his face. He had slight stubble, and he scratched at it as he walked with James back to the building, the remainder of the NanoTroop in tow. As they drew closer, Lara noticed his eyes were grey. Coloured contact lenses? Surely they wouldn't let a _blind_ man lead an elite squad of soldiers?

The NanoTroop joined the ranks of the Guards and deputised Workers and they began the trek back to the tunnels.

* * *

"So you mean to tell me…the Huskies are already here?"

"...Never come in that much force before…"

"…Walkers blew right through us…"

"…New designs, heavier cannon, faster movement…"

"…who's doing the butt-fucking now?"

The Guards, Workers and NanoTroop all conversed, Lara catching occasional snatches of conversation as she meandered about the night's residence, a small utility room that had once been the foreman's office when the sewers were being built. The NanoTroop had apparently been on the frontlines when the Huskies arrived far earlier than predicted. By all reports, they were in possession of new armoured vehicles that moved faster than before.

The NanoTroop commander had been kind enough to leave a holographic…documentary? Lara wondered what to call it as she and James watched the message floating before them. It was a brief on the new tank designs.

The bread-and-butter, it would seem, was a bipedal design. It was essentially a large metal box with a medium cannon jutting from the front and a machine gun mounted beside the hatch atop the tank. The legs were mounted on the sides, at the top of the chassis, extending down alongside it to the ground, where two large, blunt claws gripped the holographic earth. An escape hatch existed on the underside of the chassis, which was an open drop to the floor once the tank was in motion.

A truly terrifying design was that of the Dreadnoughts. They were, in simplest terms, battleships with legs. Lara could not describe what she saw before her any other way. The cannon were all of a ridiculous caliber, with barrels as wide as Carter was tall.

"Check the last segment." The commander said as he took a seat next to them. "It's a beauty." Lara complied, and was confronted with…how to describe it? Like a Dreadnought, but even longer, even taller, and with _even bigger guns_. It even had provision for multiple helicopters to land there, no less than six helipads. The muzzles of the cannons could have easily fit one of the smaller walkers inside.

"You see that?" he said, motioning toward it. Lara nodded. James replied verbally.

"I take it that's what blew down the door?"

"You bet. The main cannon, see? It's a 1200mm monster of a mortar. They turned it to face forward, as opposed to upward. They brought it right up to the gate, and then fired. The blast took out everyone within a half-kilometre radius. The gates themselves, they just disintegrated. Didn't fall to pieces, didn't just topple, they literally turned to _ash_."

Damn, thought Lara, this world just gets better and better.

* * *

"Well, let's try and get ourselves moving quicker. The sooner we're out of the Nexus, the safer we'll be." The NanoTroop commander, now known to Lara as Hardin, had no intention of waiting for the Huskies to show up, and instead wished for the entire troop of Guards and Workers to accompany them out of the Nexus. Apparently, the fabled Quantum Guard was preparing for a series of commando operations that would cripple the enemy war machine and would allow the Nation to consolidate its forces for a counterattack that would lead to the recapture of the entire city. No-one had mentioned the NanoTroop at all, after its embarrassing defeat in the first assault on the Nexus. Hardin was not pleased with his performance on the front lines, despite the overwhelming odds at which he had pitted himself.

Lara walked beside the NanoTrooper now, wondering how to approach him with a question that had been weighing heavily on her mind.

"You always look like that, or you got a question to ask?" Hardin asked casually, without even turning to face Lara.

"Uh, yes…I mean no, I mean…I _do_ have something to ask." She said, tripping over her words and her feet as she negotiated the rubble. The Huskies had already passed through here, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake. The canals that served as roads in the Nexus had all been drained by Ice Kingdom saboteurs, the watercraft all left on the bottom within stomping reach of Husky walkers. The tanks had crushed every boat they could find, so that even if the city was retaken, they would have a hard time getting back on their feet.

"Shoot."

"Uh, I was curious…are you blind?" Lara already wanted to raise her shotgun and put a shell through the roof of her mouth, shocked at her own bluntness.

"Yep." Hardin's tone was neutral as before, showing no signs of offense at Lara's inept way of asking questions about sensitive topics.

"So, you're blind, and you're leading a team of elite soldiers? Uh, how do you shoot without seeing?"

"I _do_ see."

"But you said you were blind…" Lara's mounting confusion was already giving her a headache.

"I am blind, yet I see…HAH, MIND-FUCK!" Hardin cackled, drawing odd looks from those around them, which he either did not see, or did not care for; Lara could not tell.

"See child, I was blinded by a nuclear detonation, at a place called Long 10. I could still fight though, so I went to see a man in the dark depths of the city, a practitioner of a special kind of sorcery."

"What kind of sorcery?"

"…it's a special practice that treads the line between light and dark very dangerously, and most practitioners are malevolent entities. It's called Thaumaturgy. It's like metallurgy. Metallurgy is metal working, Thaumaturgy…that's _miracle_ working."

"And he gave you your sight back?" Lara queried, her eyes wide.

"At a cost." Hardin said, sounding somewhat defeated. Lara's eyes fell to a black mark which could have been a bruise. Hardin noticed her gaze.

"Yep. That mark is gonna spread until it consumes me utterly. See, he couldn't fix my eyes, but he gave me a kind of sonar that lets me see anything, even your ridiculous facial expressions, but at the cost of a larger than usual concentration of something called Taint in my body. The Taint manifested itself as a mark over my heart. That was fifteen years ago; it's been slowly but surely spreading ever since."

"And it'll cover you completely?" Lara's voice was shaking; the horror of it was almost too much for her.

"Yep. All Thaumaturgical practices have a trade-off of some kind. When that mark covers the last inch of my body, I will perish." Hardin whispered. Lara whispered in return as they rounded the corner.

"How long?"

"Maybe a year?"

**What was that? Thaumaturgy has a horrible downside? Doesn't Lara have to see a Thaumaturgist to get home? Nice little bit of creepy for you there. On a completely unrelated note, I was asked what the firearms within the story looked like. These are their closest real-world equivalents:  
BT-1000: An MP-7 with no foregrip.  
Lara's Shotgun: Liek a W1200o, but without a stock and with a pistol grip.  
Lara's Sidearm: Like an M1911, but in .38 caliber.  
James' Rifle: Like an M14.  
James' Lupara: Just about every sawn-off ever made.  
Guard Shotguns: Like a Model 1887  
NanoTroop lasers: Like the laser rifle from **_**Fallout**_** 1+2  
Okay, hope you get the picture now. Review if you please, Boone out. **


	15. Chapter 15: Flashback - Long 10

Chapter 15: Flashback – Long 10

The miserable party of NanoTroopers, Guards, and Workers had almost crossed the entire city, and were now camped in an old office building, which was even worse for wear after the riots and Huskies. Rob was sitting atop a plastic crate of paperwork, still looking down after his brother's death.

She was learning how to cook from Miranda, preparing a meal that would, hopefully, feed the entire group. Miranda was a good teacher, and the food was coming along nicely. James was still conversing with Hardin and Jeff, the three of them passing a bottle of scotch around. Hardin was smoking a cigar. Lara could hear snatches of hushed conversation between swigs of liquor and drags of…tobacco? It didn't smell like it.

"…can't believe this shit's happenin' all over again…"

"…had enough for two lifetimes…"

"…she's already asked me about it, I said…"

Lara felt that she was the person in question, and she left her culinary lesson behind to go and sit with the disgruntled men on the covered balcony. None of them reacted to her pulling up a chair and sitting beside James. When the bottle came her way though, none of them attempted to stop her from drinking from it. She did so, and regretted it before it was even down her throat. She coughed and sprayed it all over the space between them. The boys sniggered and James took the bottle from her and placed it on the floor. Lara recovered, and attempted to make conversation.

"So…'cough'…whatcha talkin' about?" Lara sputtered.

"…" the three were silent. James sighed and turned his chair to face her.

"You remember what I said?"

"A 'great, big fuck-up' isn't very informative." She replied. She was met with another round of sighs. James spoke up, his voice heavy, betraying a sadness that ran deep.

"Fifteen years ago, we were on good terms with the Ice Kingdom, but we had antagonised another nation, the Sunrise Empire. Anyway, we had a trade route, ran for ten thousand leagues, back when we measured distance in leagues. We called it the Long 10. The Sunrise Empire, the 'Solars', they wanted to cut that route between us and the Huskies. We didn't have nearly enough equipment or men in the right places, our commanders were so used to fighting the Lupos, they didn't have a doctrine to fight Solars. Well, we somehow managed to drive them back, but they wouldn't go quietly…"

...

* * *

...

"KEEP YOUR FUCKING HEAD DOWN!"

The 'Sara' impacted with an almighty shockwave and a blast of superheated plasma that reduced anyone nearby to ash. James was thrown from the GP armoured car and he clattered to the bitumen in his body armour, rolling as fast as he was able to avoid the vehicle which was now careening around, out of control. It thundered past, dropping its .30 caliber autogun heavily on its user, who picked it up and clambered to his feet, then launched himself into the ditch that ran beside the highway.

"That's the last time I climb on one of those fuckers, I swear!" the lieutenant called. He motioned up the line to James, who made his way up to meet the CO.

"Sir!" James enquired.

"There's a rocket battery on the other side of the eastern ridge! Bastards keep droppin' Saras on us, I'm gonna take the squad and fill the fuckers full of holes! You keep down here with Jeff and set up a base of fire by that wrecked Preacher! Cover Foxtrot Company's approach!" the lieutenant yelled before taking up his energy sidearm and slapping a fresh energy cell on the slot at the rear of the weapon. He then climbed out of the trench with the rest of the squad and led them into the smoke, leaving James' sight.

James was drawn out of his reverence of the brave commander by Jeff, who thudded him gently in the side with his XLR and motioned to the wrecked hovertank. The Preacher class self-propelled artillery piece was a revolutionary hovertank design, built like a floating fortress, with miniature towers on the sides for autogun mounts. Jeff changed out both magazines on his Cross-Loading Rifle and James racked the bolt heavily on his autogun.

The two Marines stumbled out of the ditch and charged across the highway, narrowly avoiding another GP, General-Purpose, as it whizzed by with its .30 caliber autogun rattling. James and Jeff made their way over to the Preacher and climbed atop one of the towers. The .50 caliber weapon already mounted was totaled, so James unhooked it and shunted it out of the tower before mounting his GP's own .30.

He opened fire on the low-flying helicopter that had been causing trouble all along their designated 1000-mile stretch of highway. His incendiary rounds tore at the aircraft, which caught fire and smashed into the ground by the next convoy: Foxtrot Company. Their halftracks and GPs were already looking battered, but what really caught James' eye was the lack of passengers. There were no soldiers, only drivers and weapons operators. He relayed this information to Jeff, who swore. His brain was working faster than James, who was still shell-shocked from the Sara detonation.

"James, I think we're pulling out!"

"What?! The fuck are you on about? We got 'em on the run!"

The autogun continued to clatter and fling white-hot lead into the air. The convoy pulled up and the lieutenant waved them over. James started to unhook the autogun, but the lieutenant started to yell.

"Leave it! Just leave it! We're getting out! Out, damn it!"

James complied, leaping out of the tower with Jeff in tow, who was still firing with his XLR. His rounds punctured the air, causing a team of Solars who were setting up an artillery piece to duck. They reached the convoy and the lieutenant took up a combat shotgun, tossing his sidearm to James. The two Marines clambered aboard the halftrack and threw themselves into the passenger bay. The lieutenant fired twice with the shotgun, then turned back to the Marines.

"Are there any other soldiers left?"

"What d'you mean?"

"Within two minutes drive of right here, ARE THERE ANY MORE TROOPS?!"

"Uh, no! No, just us!" Ten minutes and you'll hit our commander…"

"TOO LONG! Driver, GET US OUTTA HERE!"

James was thrown into Jeff as the halftrack spun around on its treads and faced the other way, the rest of the convoy following suit. Jeff clambered up to see the commander, who was firing at the Solars as the convoy pulled away, back in the direction of the Nation, the Iron Lands.

"Is this what I think it is?"

"YEAH, HELL YEAH IT IS!" he replied, discarding the spent drum from his weapon and sliding a fresh one into place. Jeff spouted expletives and leapt to the other side of the halftrack's bay, and began to turn the crank that closed the troop bay hatch. When it was halfway across, James, who was still shell-shocked, stumbled over to the rear hatch and activated the hermetic seal. He wasn't entirely certain as to why; he was running on auto-pilot. He hermetically sealed the top hatch when Jeff had closed it, and Jeff moved to activate the life support as the commander closed and sealed his firing hatch and the rest of the vehicle.

"Wha…what's going on?" James mumbled as Jeff shunted him into a seat and strapped him in.

"The Solars can't take this place, they wanna make sure we can't have it either, they're gonna-"

The commander was cut off by a thunder the likes of which James had never heard before. It sounded like the gates of hell had burst open with a mighty crash, and the soundwave that followed it nearly deafened the four in the halftrack. James' straps came loose as the halftrack was picked up and tossed by a mighty wind, and as it came crashing down, James knocked his head against the ceiling hatch. He went out like a light.

...

* * *

...

"…and after I came to, I just sat there in the back of the halftrack with Jeff and the lieutenant, the only light inside coming from the driver's eyes-forward camera. With that, and sonar, he managed to navigate us out of there."James said, finishing his recount of the Long 10. Jeff piped up.

"The Solars couldn't fight anymore, so they decided since they couldn't have it, neither could we. They let off no less than ten plasma megawarheads. Like nuclear devices, but utilising superheated plasma, and with a much larger blast radius. They had one at each checkpoint, ten checkpoints on the ten thousand kilometre highway." He said gruffly, reaching for Hardin's cigar, yanking it from between his teeth and taking a long drag on it before replacing it in Hardin's mouth. The NanoTrooper was next to speak.

"The Huskies believed that we could have moved faster to disable the warheads, but they were too well defended. Anyway, the Huskies didn't believe that story, so there's been bad blood between our nations ever since."

"There was some kind of change in government recently in the Ice Kingdom, and the new leader isn't content with minor blockades and trade embargos. So he started a war." James finished. Lara looked at each of the three soldiers, current and former, in turn and sighed. She retrieved a hip flask and drank deeply from it before passing it around to the grateful boys.

* * *

"Well, we're nearly out of the city." Hardin called down the column of soldiers and Workers. James and Lara were bringing up the rear, James whispering reminders to Lara at regular intervals as to how she should best cover the next few steps. Lara took it all to heart, following his instructions to the letter.

"Head left, take cover by the sampan and use it as defilade from the north." He said. Lara complied, making her way carefully around debris, for Jeff had warned her that the Huskies liked to hide mines and other traps within refuse. As she moved behind the twisted and charred metal sampan, she looked across to her left and noticed a ladder that led to a section of the wharf that had been cordoned off from the rest by a wrought-iron fence. She called across to James.

"Hey, I'm gonna go check something out!" she called. James motioned for Hardin to wait where he was before moving to support Lara, his rifle slung and his lupara drawn. Lara clipped her shotgun to her pistol belt before ascending the ladder. When she reached the top of the rusty metal, she drew her sidearm and trained it forward as James made his way up, one of his many throwing knives between his teeth. When he reached the top, redrew his lupara and held it forward with one hand, supporting it from beneath with the other, which was still grasping the knife. He actually looked like a policeman from the T.V. shows that Lara used to watch, albeit with a blade in place of a torch.

The two Slayers made their way forward towards the edge of the row of buildings, noticing that this building was…how to say it…a dummy building. There were no inhabitants, the windows were painted on. The door was blown apart, and behind it was a set of cobblestone stairs leading downward.

There was an odd purple vapour emanating from down the stairs. Lara gulped, then racked the slide on her handgun and proceeded down the stairs, James following close behind.

**Okay, so I shed a little light on the whole 'Long 10' thing from Chapter 12. Now, after so much overwhelming science and technology, there's gonna be a little hocus-pocus to satisfy all the magicians out there. I'm trying to figure how the next scene is going to play out. How should I portray the Thaumaturgist that Lara is about to meet? Open to suggestions over here, and review as always! Boone, out. **

**[XLR (Cross Loading Rifle)-Like an Enfield assault rifle, but with two barrels side-by-side and a magazine jutting from each side like a Sten gun.]**


	16. Chapter 16: Thaumic Encounters

Chapter 16: Thaumic Encounters

As Lara and James proceeded down the stairway, Lara found she could hear muttering from downstairs, a voice that was darker than even Hardin's. She could not place the accent, it being unfamiliar to her.

"…damn Huskies…persecuted by my own people…now they think they can march in here and…" the voice cut off, and Lara heard a sharp intake of breath. She was then hit by a startling wave of sound.

"Who's there? Friend or foe?" the voice yelled up the stair way, and a faint purple glow began to move up the stairway from out of the darkness.

"Depends! Who are your friends, who are your foes?" James called in return, placing his hand on Lara's shoulder and pulling her behind him. He levelled his lupara, both hands on the grip. The glow ceased its forward march. The voice chuckled.

"Clever response. I take it you mean me no harm, provided I do not strike first? What brings you to my Thaumatorium?" The glow moved close enough for the two Slayers to make out a vaguely human shape, which waved for them to come closer before retreating into the darkness. James shrugged at Lara and proceeded down the stairs, lowering his weapon but keeping both hands on it. Lara followed close behind; pressing herself close to James for fear that the darkness might swallow her up.

When they reached the end of the stairway, they passed through a doorway that led to a candlelit chamber. The purple vapour hung heavy in the air, but did not seem to have any negative effects when Lara breathed it in. The glowing purple figure was busying itself at the end of the corridor. Lara finally got a good look at the figure as the two Slayers moved into the Thaumatorium proper. The figure was clad in thick, bulky purple armour. It looked quite hefty, but the figure moved as fluidly as if it were made of air. Lara could now clearly see it was a man.

"Your purpose for coming here?" he said as he turned to the Slayers. The helmet looked quite threatening, the visor angular like an expression of rage. Lara pressed herself even closer to James, who spoke for the pair.

"Simple curiosity, nothing more."

"And where are you headed?" the Thaumaturgist enquired as he returned to his work, which seemed to consist mostly of placing a variety of valuable-looking items within a sturdy pack. Lara gasped again as he placed several large items into the impossibly small bag; a pack with infinite space on the inside, she realised.

"Out of the city."

"May I join you?"

James and Lara were somewhat stunned by the request. The Thaumaturgist placed the bottomless pack on his back and hefted a sword made of the same purple metal within a dark violet sheath. He belted it over his shoulder, behind the pack. He looked quite fearsome, and James deduced he had skill aplenty with his mystical blade.

"…I…guess…"

"Good." he said, nodding and leading them out of the Thaumatorium. The door shut by itself as they left.

"That door is sealed now; only I can open it, and only after a minimum period of one month. Rest assured; no Huskies will be trashing the place, spilling Vis and Taint into the atmosphere."

"Veeze? What's a Veeze?" Lara asked.

"Vis, pronounced with a 'ce', not a 'ze'." He corrected. "I'll explain later."

* * *

The group re-entered the street. The Thaumaturgist stopped instantly and dropped to the ground, somehow soundlessly despite the bulky purple armour.

"Drop!" he whispered hoarsely. "Huskies in the canal."

Lara moved to the edge of the canal and swapped her sidearm out for her shotgun. She pumped the slide a few times, ejecting the buckshot shells, and then replaced them with the slug shells from the side of her weapon before retrieving the buckshot. James had his rifle out already, and was taking a concealed position by a trash can by the edge. He raised his rifle. Lara levelled the scattergun and surveyed the scene before her.

Somehow, the Huskies had soundlessly overwhelmed the Guards and NanoTroopers, who were still alive, and the Workers, who were now piled up lifelessly by the sampan that Lara used for cover earlier. The soldiers were all lined up in a row, on their knees with their hands behind their heads. Hardin had his eyes closed, which didn't matter, considering his lack of sight. All the same, it made him look serene, which frustrated the Huskies.

Lara was getting her first look at the ones who had caused so much trouble. She noted their uniforms first. Most of the soldiers wore beige-green uniforms, topped with beige berets or rounded metal helmets. They carried assault weapons, which looked as if they had been made within an hour in a garage. The leader of the group wore a heavy fur coat and hat, and boots which seemed impossibly big. He also sported a huge moustache. Lara was somewhat disgusted by it, but James seemed impressed for some reason. Then came the coup-de-grace. Lara turned her vision to the end of the street and spotted a walker. One of the smaller two-legged designs. The commander wore a fur hat and was racking the bolt on the machine gun mounted on the ring around the hatch.

"They're going to use that tank to slaughter the prisoners." The Thaumaturgist muttered. He drew his blade and dropped to a crouch. "When I give the signal, start firing. Go for the ones closest to the prisoners. Tell your boyfriend to take out the tank commander. I'll marshal the prisoners to cover." He said. Lara's indignation at the accusation of a relationship between herself and James would have to wait though, as the Thaumaturgist had sprinted away soundlessly and was preparing to give his signal. Lara relayed the instructions to James, who nodded and shifted his aim to the commander, who was bringing his machine gun to bear on the prisoners. Lara realised with disgust that they were going to cut them down in a nice, neat row with the weapon.

The Thaumaturgist grabbed a small purple vial from his belt and pulled a small metal pin from the top. He nodded at Lara as he threw it over the edge, before he sprinted after it and threw himself into the canal with it. Lara rose to a standing position as James squeezed the trigger and the vial impacted.

Four events occurred at the same instant. The vial impacted the commander on the ground, who promptly disappeared soundlessly in a purple cloud, leaving no trace of his existence. James fired his first shot, which took the head off of the tank commander, who slumped over his machine gun. The Thaumaturgist himself landed in the canal without a sound as the soldiers began to react to the attack. He thrust his blade inside the closest Husky, who collapsed without a sound. Hardin got to his feet instantly and began to sprint, as did the other NanoTroopers; The Guards were a little slower to react, but once they saw Hardin shepherding the others out of the tank's field of fire, they were galvanised. The last thing to occur was Lara's first shot; which tore through one Husky's head and buried itself in the chest of another.

The tank came to life as James shifted his fire to the men in the canal. As Lara and James rained gunfire down on the Huskies in the canal, the prisoners all made it to cover at the Thaumaturgist's urging. He then took his blade up and made for the walker at the end of the canal. How he was going to take on a walking tank with a sword, she had no idea, but he had proven himself resourceful. The two Slayers put down the last of the Huskies, who never even had time for a single gunshot, before shifting their aim to the tank. The walker had its main cannon trained on the Thaumaturgist, who didn't even bother trying to evade its aim. Lara gasped as the tank fired. The recoil made the tank stagger slightly, and Lara peered through the smoke. As it cleared, she gave a whoop and waved her shotgun in the air.

The shot had not harmed the sorcerer in the slightest, and he continued sprinting, the shot having left only minor scorching on his mauve armour. He leapt higher than was humanly possible to land atop the tank. He grabbed the lifeless body of the commander and hurled it off the tank before plunging his sword through the hatch. James and Lara heard screams from the crew. The man withdrew his blade and retrieved another vial from his belt, this one glowing a dangerous red. He leapt into the air again, dropping the vial through the open hatch as he sailed through the air, away from the walker. The vial disappeared through the hatch and the tank was suddenly swallowed by a burst of flame, which incinerated most of the armoured vehicle, leaving the rest to topple to the ground with an almighty crash. The Thaumaturgist landed heavily on the street, leaving a small crater. He rose, sheathed his sword, and began to stride over to where the Guards and NanoTroopers were leaving their hiding places. Hardin rendezvoused with Lara and James and the three made their way over to the sorcerer. Hardin was cackling with glee.

"Well done, man! Well done, I…" he trailed off as he took in the purple aura that surrounded the Thaumaturgist. He backed away, reaching for a weapon that wasn't there, realising he was unarmed and gaping in horror at the man before him.

"Hello there, Hardin. It's a pleasure to see you again."

"You?!" he cried in shock. He turned to Lara and James. "He's not coming with us. No way, no how!" Hardin yelled before storming off to rejoin his NanoTroopers, who had found their weapons and were proceeding to re-arm themselves. Lara queried the Thaumaturgist as to the encounter.

"He was blind. I made him see, at a cost. Not an intended one, I swear."

"So it was you?" Lara mused.

"He's told you of me?"

"Yep. He doesn't like you. By the way, do you have a name?" Lara asked.

"My real name cannot be pronounced in this mortal tongue. However, for the sake of convenience, you may call me Vargas."

And with that, he sheathed his blade and began to stride along the canal, brazenly disregarding all possible threats.

"Guess we gotta follow him. I get the feeling we'll get out of here alive." Lara said.

"Wait, where's the Squad?"

James and Lara exchanged a single worried glance before sprinting to the pile of Worker corpses, trying to see if their comrades were among the bodies. They were stopped however, by a shout from among the survivors. They turned to see what was wrong, and were overjoyed to see Jeff, Miranda, Rob and Jordan running towards them, outfitted in Guard gear and wielding the iconic lever-action scatterguns. In a moment of happy reunion, they all entered a group embrace. Soon though, a worm of doubt began to eat away at James' mind. He released the group and spoke the terrible words.

"Guys…where's Carter?" the group turned at this horrible revelation and looked at the mound of corpses. Atop the gruesome pile, covered in wounds and with a dead Husky strangled in each lifeless arm, was Carter.

**Howdy, Boone here.  
Yeah, in case it wasn't blatantly obvious, I didn't like Carter.** **He just kinda sat there and didn't do anything useful, so I gave up on him. Tom I regret, Carter I do not.** **Yeah, I'm also not too sure about the Thaumaturgist's name, does it sound gay?  
I have apologized before and I shall do so again; ****sorry for these chapters being so few and far between. I had to take a little break because of a few personal issues clouding my headspace. They're all cleared up now (for the moment at least), so sorry again for leaving you all hanging like so many other authors on this site who give up without a word of farewell. Expect more new chapters soon-ish. (Please don't hate me.)  
[I HAVE 3000 VIEWS, WOWEE! THANK YOU ALL OH SO VERY MUCH!]  
Boone, out. **


End file.
